Sunday, December 9, 2012

Konjaku Monogatarishū Vol. 2, Tale 1: Śuddhodana's Death #1 (part 4)

While they were doing that, King Śuddhodana's palace (fig. 1) suddenly shined brilliantly with a gapless golden light, as if the light of the morning sun had entered it (fig. 2).

Fig. 2: 俄ニ朝日ノ光ノ差入タルカ如ク金ノ光リ隙无ク照耀ク

At the beginning of fig. 1, we see 「而ル程ニ」, which can actually be treated as one phrase （接続）. According to the Nihongo Kokugo Daijiten, it's equivalent to the modern Japanese phrase 「そうしているうちに」 — "while doing that". The first example given along with the definition is actually from another sentence in Konjaku.

Edit: from Chris's explanation in the comments, 「而ル」 is a contraction of 「しか」 (an archaic 「そう」) and 「ある」. 「程ニ」 is equivalent to 「内ニ」.

Edit 2: I initially had the reading for 「隙」 as 「すき」, but as Matt suggested in the comments, this is more likely read as 「くま」. Moreover, there are no real examples of 「すきなく」 that I could find online, whereas there are plenty of examples for 「くまなく」.

In fig. 2, note the irregular okurigana usage with 「差入タル」. Once again, the "internal" kana — such as the 「し」 in 「差し入れ」 — is not present. This can also be seen in the fig. 2 with 「照耀ク」. You also see "light" written in two different ways in the same figure — 「光」 and 「光リ」.

Note that the same 3-kana arrangement pattern that has been seen in previous sentences was observed again with 「タルカ」, with the dakuten for 「ガ」 omitted again.

Adding the okurigana 「シ」 after 「如」 was a hard decision. The Suzuka Manuscript scan provided by Kyoto University has a relatively low DPI, particularly when compared to the National Diet Library's scan of Shunshoku Umegoyomi. The area of the manuscript where the okurigana would be expected to appear seems to have been damaged. Although there are no clear indications of a kana there, there is a bit of a smudge on the right side of the blank space between 「如」 and 「金」. The presence of such a large blank space between the two kanji was also convincing.

Edit: as Chris has pointed out in the comments, it would make more grammatical sense to have 「ク」 here, and not 「シ」, so that the verb is in the continuative form （連用形）, as it is followed by another clause.

Fig. 3: 其ノ時淨飯王ヲ始テ

其ノ時ニ、浄飯王ヲ始テ、若干（そこばく）ノ人驚キ怪シム事限リ无シ。

At that moment, King Śuddhodana, and (fig. 3) many other people as well, were amazed, and the awe was limitless (fig. 4).

Fig. 4: 若干ノ人驚怪シム事无限シ

I wasn't exactly sure how to interpret the 「始テ」 in fig. 3, so I kind of guessed that he woke up. I was a little tripped up by the 「ヲ」 that comes before it, and I'm still not entirely sure how it fits in.Edit: as Matt has explained in the comments, 「Xを始め（て）Y」 is a pattern that means ""Y, including X". Also, 「怪しむ」 likely has its older meaning of "wonderment" or "awe" here.

The meaning in modern Japanese of 「若干」 is "some" or "few", and the reading is 「じゃっかん」. However, there is also the archaic meaning of "a lot" or "many" (see definition #3), with the reading 「そこばく」 (among others; I just picked this reading because it was the first one listed).

Note how I added a 「キ」 after 「驚」 in the modified version above. This is because, unlike with 「如ク」 in fig. 2, I didn't feel that there was enough evidence of the presence of a 「キ」 in the original text. There doesn't seem to be that much space between 「驚怪」, nor any signs that there might have been an okurigana there (except for some damage to the manuscript in that region).

「怪シム」 is a single verb; the 「ム」 is not an auxiliary verb or anything like that.

Finally, we see the Chinese-origin pattern 「无限シ」 resurface. It was encountered previously in fig. 3 of this post.

Fig. 5: 大王モ此ノ光ニ照サレテ

大王モ此ノ光に照（てら）サレテ、病ノ苦（くるしビ忽チニ除のぞきテ、身ノ楽（たのし）ビ限リ无シ。

The Great King was also illuminated by this light (fig. 5), [his] suffering from disease was suddenly removed (fig. 6), and his joy was limitless (fig. 7).

Fig. 6: 病ノ苦ヒ忽チニ除テ

Of interest in fig. 5 is 「照サレテ」, where 「照サ」 is the imperfective form （未然形） of 「照ス」 ("to illuminate"), 「レ」 is the continuative form （連用形） of the auxiliary verb 「る」, which has the passive （受身） function here. 「テ」 is, of course, the continuative particle.

Fig. 7: 身ノ樂ヒ无限シ

In fig. 6, we see 「苦ビ」, which is just an alternate form of 「苦しみ」. Same goes for 「楽ビ」 in fig. 7.

I wonder if 隙无く isn't meant to be read くまなく rather than すきなく -- that's a much more common way of expressing the idea of an area flooded by light, in my experience. "Nokoru kuma naku, sawari naku hikari kagayaku asahikage..."

"o hajimete" is still basically in use! It mostly appears as "o hajime" now, though. "X o hajime, Y..." means something like "Y, including X", or "X and the rest of Y". Examples from Aozora Bunko: